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The Tamil question in Sri Lanka

By Chris Slee

October 5, 2008 --On January 2, 2008, the Sri Lankan
government formally renounced the ceasefire agreement with the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which a previous government had signed in
February 2002. But by the beginning of 2008 the ceasefire already existed only
on paper. Violence, which had been escalating for several years, had by then
reached the level of full-scale war.

The war has caused terrible suffering for civilians.
Last year's fighting in the east of the island displaced hundreds of thousands
of people, adding to those already displaced by previous fighting, and by the
December 2004 tsunami. The recent offensive by the Sri Lankan army in the Vanni
region of northern Sri Lanka has displaced nearly 200,000 more, according to
the Australian Federation of Tamil Associations [1].

At the time of writing, Kilinochchi, a town in
northern Sri Lanka which was the administrative centre for all LTTE-controlled
territory, is being subjected to aerial and ground artillery bombardment, and
its population has been evacuated to LTTE-controlled rural areas. United
Nations agencies and international aid organisations have withdrawn from the
town, despite attempts by the local people to block their departure (their
presence had been seen as providing some deterrent to massive bombardment or
other atrocities by the Sri Lankan army, which has been slowly advancing
towards the town).

Origins of the conflict

The roots of the conflict lie in a long history of
state oppression of the Tamils in Sri Lanka, which eventually led some Tamil
youth to take up arms against the government.

When the British government granted formal
independence to Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) in 1948, it handed power to
politicians drawn mainly from the upper classes of the majority Sinhala ethnic
group. These politicians used racism as a tool to divide the working class.
They also used it as a weapon in their struggles with each other: different
Sinhalese politicians would compete to show that they were the strongest
defenders of the Sinhalese people. This resulted in the adoption of racist
policies and the stirring up of antagonism against the Tamil minority.

One of the newly independent state's first acts was to
deprive Tamil plantation workers of citizenship rights. These workers were
descended from people brought to Sri Lanka from India by the British in the
nineteenth century to work on coffee and tea plantations. Despite the fact that
their families had lived in Sri Lanka for several generations, a million people
were denied Sri Lankan citizenship, being defined as "Indians".

The citizenship law did not directly affect the main
group of Tamils, whose ancestors had lived in the north and east of the island
of Sri Lanka for thousands of years. But it was soon followed by new laws
adversely affecting all Tamils. Sinhalese was declared the sole official
language of Sri Lanka, a move which made speakers of the Tamil language
second-class citizens. Knowledge of Sinhalese was made a prerequisite for
employment in the public service, thereby excluding most Tamils from government
jobs. Discrimination against Tamils was also applied in education.

For many years Tamils opposed these discriminatory
laws by peaceful means, including demonstrations, sit-ins and participation in
elections. But peaceful protests were met with violent repression, carried out
by the police and army as well as racist Sinhalese mobs incited to violence by
politicians and Buddhist monks. There was a series of pogroms against Tamils,
culminating in the murder of an estimated 3000 people in the
government-instigated riots of July 1983.

LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham argued that:
"The anti-Tamil riots that periodically erupted in the island should not
be viewed as spontaneous outbursts of inter-communal violence between the two
communities. All major racial conflagrations that erupted violently against the
Tamil people were inspired and masterminded by the Sinhala regimes as a part of
a genocidal program. Violent anti-Tamil riots exploded on the island in 1956,
1958, 1961,1974, 1977,1979, 1981 and in July 1983. In these racial holocausts
thousands of Tamils, including women and children, were massacred in the most
gruesome manner, billions of rupees worth of Tamil property was destroyed and
hundreds of thousands made refugees. The state's armed forces colluded with the
Sinhalese hooligans and vandals in their violent rampage of arson, rape and
mass murder." [2]

The growing repression led to the growth of Tamil
nationalist sentiment. In 1977 the Tamil United Liberation Front won 17 seats
in the Sri Lankan parliament on a platform of self-determination for Tamils.

LTTE forms

The repression of peaceful protest led many Tamil
youth to turn to violent methods. The LTTE was formed in 1972 and carried out
its first major armed action in 1978. After the 1983 pogrom, the LTTE gained
increased support from the Tamil community and dramatically stepped up its war
against the Sri Lankan army.

Government forces were unable to defeat the LTTE,
despite brutal repression including numerous massacres of Tamil civilians. In
1987 India sent a "peacekeeping force" to Sri Lanka, with the
ostensible aim of protecting the Tamils from the violence of the Sri Lankan
army. However the Indian government did not want to see the creation of an
independent Tamil state, and the Indian army soon began repressing the LTTE.
The Indians tried to use some other Tamil armed groups as a counterweight to
the LTTE, leading to conflict among the Tamil militants.

In 1988, Ranasinghe Premadasa was elected as president
of Sri Lanka. He was no friend of Tamils, having been prime minister during the
1983 pogrom. Nevertheless, he opposed the continued presence of Indian troops,
and started talks with the LTTE. He even secretly gave the LTTE some arms to
fight the Indian troops. But he remained opposed to self-determination for the
Tamils, and once the Indian army had withdrawn, fighting broke out once again
between the Sri Lankan army and the LTTE.

There have been a number of attempts to reach a
peaceful settlement to the war.

Chandrika Kumaratunga was elected prime minister in
1994 after campaigning on a peace platform. However, Kumaratunga was never
serious about peace, but merely wanted time to rebuild the Sri Lankan army for
a new war. [3]

In February 2002 a ceasefire agreement was signed
between the LTTE and the United National Party (UNP) government of Ranil
Wickremesinghe. This was the longest-lasting attempt to bring peace. But once
again the government not only failed to offer the Tamil people a just solution
that could guarantee a lasting peace; it failed even to fully implement the
provisions of the ceasefire agreement -- for example, those provisions
requiring the Sri Lankan army to evacuate public buildings it had occcupied in
Tamil areas, and to disarm pro-government paramilitary groups. These
paramilitary groups continued to exist and to carry out, in collusion with the
Sri Lankan army, acts of violence and intimidation against LTTE supporters.

The UNP government, which claimed to want peace but
failed to deliver it, was replaced in 2004 by a more openly chauvinist
government, a coalition of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SFLP) with the JVP
(Peoples Liberation Front). Later the JVP left the ruling coalition, but an even
more extreme Sinhalese chauvinist party, the Jatika Hela Urumaya, which is led
by Buddhist monks, joined the government.

Following the election of the SLFP, violence escalated
into full-scale war. LTTE-controlled areas have been subjected to aerial and
artillery bombardment by the Sri Lankan armed forces, as well as blockades
preventing food supplies and other necessities from entering these areas. Tamil
civilians have been murdered by government troops and pro-government militias,
and Tamil youth have been conscripted into these militias against their will.

There have been a series of massacres by the armed
forces. For example, on June 17, 2006, in the fishing village of Pesalai, Sri
Lankan navy troops threw grenades into a church where Tamil refugees were
sheltering. [4] On August 4, in the town of Muttur, 17 aid workers (most of
them Tamils) employed by the French charity Action Contre le Faim (Action
Against Hunger) were murdered in cold blood by the army. [5] On August 14, in
Mullaitivu, an orphanage was bombed by the Sri Lankan airforce, killing more
than 50 children. [6]

Fifteen-thousand people fled from the town of Vaharai
in eastern Sri Lanka following heavy shelling by the Sri Lankan army on January
18, 2007. According to the Tamilnet
website, the shelling was intensified in the evening despite an urgent message
sent to the International Committee of the Red Cross from Vaharai hospital
authorities saying that the area around the hospital, where many displaced
people had sought refuge, was under attack. [7]

In March 2007, Batticaloa district parliamantarian S.
Jeyanandamoorthy claimed that 40,000 people had been displaced from the
Paduvankarai area of eastern Sri Lanka in a period of 48 hours, due to heavy
artillery and rocket fire from the Sri Lankan army. [8]

Repression against Tamils has intensified, not only in
the traditional Tamil areas of the north and east, but also in Sri Lanka's
capital Colombo. Many Tamils have fled to Colombo, both to escape the fighting
in the north and east and for economic reasons. But the renewed war has led to
increased harassment of Tamils in Colombo. Police have carried out sweeps
through Colombo’s suburbs, questioning Tamils about their reasons for being in
the capital. Military checkpoints have been established at key junctions
throughout the city.

On June 7, 2007, 500 Tamils were forcefully expelled
from lodges in Colombo, and sent on buses to the north and east. A further 300
were detained in a police station awaiting transport.

* * * *

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Human rights and peace groups and Tamil and left
parties held a demonstration to protest against the expulsions on June 8, 2007.
The Supreme Court ordered a halt to the expulsions. Nevertheless, the
expulsions provided yet another example of the government's racist attitude
towards the Tamils.

Indian journalist Narayan Swamy commented that the
expulsions carried out by the Sinhala-chauvinist state paradoxically prove the
existence of, and the need for, a Tamil homeland: "For too long it has
been claimed by Sri Lanka's ruling elite that there cannot be a concept of
`Tamil homeland’ because more Tamils now live outside of the war zone that is
the northeastern province, which was once overwhelmingly Tamil ... the Sri
Lanka police's high-handed action seemed to prove that the `Tamil homeland’
does exist and it does constitute precisely that region the Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) wants to secede.’’ [9]

The military situation

During 2007 the Sri Lankan army carried out an
offensive to capture the LTTE-controlled areas in the eastern part of the
island of Sri Lanka, and claimed to have been completely successful. During
2008, the army has been attempting to capture the LTTE-controlled areas in the
north of the island, and to wipe out the LTTE altogether.

The Sri Lankan army has made some progress in
capturing territory in the north, but is meeting fierce resistance. In the
month of August 2008 alone, 155 Sri Lankan army soldiers were killed and 983
wounded [10]. While forced to retreat in some areas, the LTTE has carried out
attacks behind Sri Lankan army lines. On September 9, the LTTE carried out an
attack on the Sri Lankan army military headquarters for the Vanni district,
killing 14 soldiers and causing severe damage [11]. In the east, supposedly
under firm government control, ambushes and attacks on army bases continue to
occur.

The LTTE has used light aircraft to carry out bombing
raids on government targets, including an air base and oil installations in
Colombo, and a military base in the northern Jaffna peninsula.

The government has claimed to be making rapid progress
in capturing the north, and that it is close to complete victory over the LTTE.
But after the LTTE attack on the Sri Lankan military's Vanni district
headquarters in the town of Vavuniya, the UNP opposition has questioned the
government’s claims of progress in the war. According to UNP parliamentarian
Lakshman Seneviratne, "The Air Force base and the Police HQ of Vavuniya
was attacked using heavy artillery. [The] Radar defence system is completely
destroyed. This happened in an area that [the] government has always claimed
has been liberated long ago, and cleared of any LTTE activity". [12]

Seneviratne also accused government ministers of
embezzling large quantities of money intended for the military.

Role of imperialism

The United States and other imperialist powers have
always supported the Sri Lankan state against the Tamil struggle. They have
supplied weapons and military training to the Sri Lankan army. Israel has
supplied Kfir jets to the Sri Lankan airforce, which has used them to bomb
towns such as Kilinochchi. The United States has long banned the LTTE as a
"terrorist organisation" (while ignoring the campaign of state
terrorism carried out by the Sri Lankan armed forces, except for an occasional
mild criticism of some human rights violations). More recently the European
Union has also banned the LTTE.

The bias of the "international community"
has also taken more subtle forms. An example is the Sri Lankan Monitoring
Mission (SLMM), which was established to supervise the 2002 ceasefire. The
SLMM, which was headed by a Norwegian general, failed to enforce certain key
provisions of the ceasefire agreement -- for example, those requiring the Sri
Lankan army to vacate public buildings it had occupied in Tamil areas and to
disarm paramilitary groups allied to the army. The Norwegian mediators also did
not take seriously the LTTE's call for refugees to be allowed to return to
their homes in the large areas of land occupied by the Sri Lankan army (the
so-called "high security zones").

But while essentially supporting the Sri Lankan
government, the imperialist powers have at times tried to pressure it into
granting some concessions to the Tamils, in the hope of winning them away from
the LTTE. Western governments sometimes criticise the Sri Lankan government for
some of its human rights violations.

In December 2007 the US Senate imposed restrictions on
the sale of military equipment to Sri Lanka, though equipment for the purpose
of "maritime and air surveillance and communications" was excluded
from the ban. [13]

Such criticisms and pressure annoy the government and
Sinhala chauvinists, who often claim that foreign powers are supporting the
LTTE.

But this is nonsense. The recent partial restrictions
on military supplies to Sri Lanka are an exception to the longstanding US
policy of full support to the Sri Lankan government's war effort. As Gajan Raj
says in the May 23, 2007, Tamil Guardian:
"[T]he US failed to restrain the Sri Lankan state's belligerence and
instead tolerated and encouraged it. Whilst making the odd statement that there
was 'no military solution to conflict', the US provided increased military and
financial assistance to the state even when Colombo was stepping up military
violence in breach of the ceasefire agreement." [14]

US officials have made their position very clear. In
November 2006, US under-secretary of state Nicholas Burns said: "[W]e are
not neutral...We support the [Sri Lankan] government... We believe the
government has a right to try to protect the territorial integrity and
sovereignty of the country." [15]

Nevertheless, the Sri Lankan government has not relied
solely on the US and its allies for support. It has bought weapons from a range
of sources, including China, India, Pakistan and Russia. It sometimes seeks to
win the sympathy of Third World people and governments by portraying itself as
a victim of imperialist plots to "divide the country". Recently it
has established economic links with Iran, and there have been claims of
military links as well.

The government reacts with extreme hostility to even
the slightest hint of criticism. When UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon
expressed concern about the plight of Tamil refugees in the Vanni region, an
official of Sri Lanka's so-called Human Rights Ministry claimed that there were
"hardly any civilian casualties" and that Ban's remarks would benefit
the LTTE. [16]

Failures of the left

The government's ability to wage war on the Tamils has
been facilitated by the lack of a strong anti-war movement amongst the mainly
Sinhalese population in the south of Sri Lanka. This in turn reflects the
weakness and political inadequacy of the left in Sri Lanka.

During the 1950s the Sri Lankan left appeared fairly
strong. Both the Communist Party and the Trotskyist Lanka Sama Samaja Party
(LSSP) had a number of members of parliament.

However these parties proved willing to sell out their
principles in order to be able to join coalition governments with the bourgeois
Sri Lanka Freedom Party. For example they dropped their insistence on equality
for the Tamil language. Furthermore the left parties largely neglected the
rural poor.

The shortcomings of the left parties contributed to
the rise of the JVP in Sinhala areas and of the LTTE in Tamil areas.

The JVP

The Peoples Liberation Front (JVP) was formed in the
1960s as a radical movement of Sinhalese rural youth. It led revolts against
the government in 1971 and 1989 and was repressed by the Sri Lankan army with
extreme brutality on both occasions.

Since then the JVP has been rebuilt and has had
considerable success in parliamentary elections. Previously critical of the
parliamentarist attitude of the old left parties, the JVP seems to have adapted
to parliamentarism itself. In 2005 it reassured US officials that it had "renounced
armed struggle". [17]

The JVP, while claiming to be Marxist, always had an
element of Sinhalese chauvinism in its outlook. This has become more pronounced
in recent years. While claiming to support equal rights for all ethnic groups,
it denies the right of Tamils to self-determination and calls for war against
the LTTE -- which in practice, given the racist character of the Sri Lankan
army and the extent of popular support for the LTTE among Tamils, means war
against the Tamil people.

The JVP,
disregarding the tens of thousands of its own members and supporters massacred
by the Sri Lankan army in 1971 and 1989, now talks of the army as "our
armed forces" [18]. In August 2006 Wimal Weerawansa, who was at that time
the JVP's propaganda secretary, was invited to address Sri Lankan army troops,
and advocated full-scale war against the LTTE. [19]

Recently the JVP has split. The majority, while
remaining pro-war, has attempted to reverse its declining support among working
people by once again campaigning for workers' economic demands, which had been
abandoned in favour of a single-minded emphasis on support for the war effort.
The minority, which broke away and adopted the name National Freedom Front,
continues to say that winning the war against the LTTE is its only task. The
NFF is very close to the Rajapakse government.

Strengths and limitations of the LTTE

The LTTE has fought courageously and persistently
against the Sri Lankan and Indian armies in an effort to win self-determination
for the Tamil people. It has also been willing to seek a peaceful solution when
it appeared that the Sri Lankan government might be willing to agree.

The LTTE has strong support from the Tamils living in
the north and east of the island of Sri Lanka. This is indicated by election
results (20 members of the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance were elected to Sri
Lanka's parliament in 2004), and by the big attendance at LTTE-organised
rallies held during the ceasefire (e.g. the series of large rallies for
self-determination held throughout the north and east during 2005).

Yet the goal of self-determination has not yet been
attained. This is not solely due to the military power of the Sri Lankan state
and the backing it receives from the imperialist powers (important though that
is). It is also due to the political limitations of the LTTE itself.

The LTTE has usually tended to see the struggle as a
predominantly military one. This has led it to disregard certain essential
political tasks, including the need to win support among the Sinhalese workers,
peasants and students of southern Sri Lanka for the right of Tamils to
self-determination, as well as the need to win the support of the
Tamil-speaking Muslims of eastern Sri Lanka.

The US anti-war movement played a key role in forcing the
withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam. The absence of a mass anti-war movement
in southern Sri Lanka is a key obstacle to the success of the Tamil
self-determination struggle.

The LTTE has been willing to negotiate with Sinhalese
political leaders whenever the latter has shown any signs of wanting to reach a
peaceful solution. But the LTTE has not made a serious effort to get its
message directly to the Sinhalese masses, by bypassing the politicians whose
promises of peace have been deceptive.

The lack of a strong anti-war movement in southern Sri
Lanka reflects the weakness and political limitations of the Sri Lankan left.
But some actions by LTTE have also helped to alienate the Sinhalese masses.

The LTTE has sometimes responded to the atrocities of
the Sri Lankan army by carrying out atrocities of its own, including massacres
of Sinhalese civilians. The LTTE has at various times carried out bombing
campaigns in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo and elsewhere in the south. These
actions have alienated Sinhalese workers from the Tamil struggle. When the
targets were military such attacks could be justified, but this has not always
been the case.

Errors by the LTTE also helped alienate the
Tamil-speaking Muslims of northern and eastern Sri Lanka from the Tamil
struggle. The government's discrimination against the Tamil language should
have provided a basis for a united struggle by all Tamil-speaking people,
including Muslims, against this injustice, and for a united homeland for all
Tamil-speaking people in the north and east of Sri Lanka.

Some Muslim youth joined the LTTE in its early years.
But the government, with the aid of some Muslim politicians, was able to
instigate clashes between Tamils and Tamil-speaking Muslims. This led the LTTE
to become suspicious of Muslims, to such an extent that it expelled them en
masse from the Jaffna region. While the LTTE has since made efforts to rebuild
relations with the Muslims, suspicions have not been completely overcome.

The LTTE's militaristic way of thinking has also led
to the repression of dissent among Tamils. I mentioned that during the period
of Indian intervention the Indian government tried to make use of the rivalries
amongst Tamil militant groups by building up other groups as a counter to the
LTTE. The Tigers reacted ruthlessly by murdering hundreds of members of rival
groups. The LTTE also killed some human rights activists who were documenting
atrocities by all sides, including the LTTE.

Support Tamil self-determination

These faults of the LTTE should not, however, negate
our support for the right of Tamils to self-determination, and in particular
for the removal of the occupying Sri Lankan army from Tamil areas.

The cycle of violence was initiated by the Sri Lankan
government, and the government's denial of the right of Tamils to
self-determination remains the main obstacle to peace. The Sri Lankan army is
an army of occupation in Tamil areas. Its removal from these areas is a
precondition for peace.

Self-determination need not lead to total separation of predominantly
Tamil areas from the Sri Lankan state. The LTTE has stated its willingness to
consider a federal structure. But the crucial point is that the unity of Sri
Lanka most be voluntary. "Unity" can not be imposed by the Sri Lankan army through violent repression of the Tamil
people.

[Chris Slee is member of the Democratic Socialist
Perspective, a Marxist organisation affiliated to the Socialist Alliance of
Australia. He a long-time activist in solidarity with the Tamil people’s
struggle.]

3. LTTE theoretician and negotiator
Anton Balasingham documents this in chapter 4 of his book (see above), where he
publishes the series of letters exchanged between Kumaratunga and LTTE leader
Vellupillai Pirapaharan.

Comments

The long and continued multi-focal discrimination of Tamils in Sri Lanka because of long-standing conspiracy of Sri Lankan politicians to score points over one another has created a mess for the tiny island country which otherwise has an impressive show in human development. Tamil politicians in India who always have an insatiable hunger for more of reel politics than cautious pragmatism have done it again just to impress upon the people of Tamil Nadu (who have a high level of apetite for reel figures) that they care more about identity than anything else. The intensity of political muscle flexing by DMK politicians that was seen in the last week or so was highly unwarranted and bordered on an ugly display of political maneuvering that weighs heavily on a weak government that has been battered by recent international economic developments and surge of inflation in recent months.

This will surely pave the way for enacting a bigger show of solidarity by other dominant regional identities like Raj & Uddhav Thakereys for fellow Maharashtrians and by Muslims for anti-India islamic separatist groups operating in Kashmir and Pakistan. After all why they are being labelled as politically motivated and divisive? They are fully justified in their ultra-right or ultra-violent thinking that shows some sort of ethnic solidarity for their respective communities. Why should other politicians blame such groups as divisive or anti-Indian? They have their constitutionally guaranteed rights to show soft corners for their brethren suffering from various disadvantages.

If politicians compete with each other in such a manner that does not set any limits for showing political staunts, the country may well have to forget about fighting real issues of poverty, illiteracy, health & nutrition and infrastructure thereby exacerbating the recessionary trends and unleashing an agenda of politics without conscience.

All the best to such myopic politicians for preparing briskly for another 6 decades of neglect and mis-governance in India.